adafruit industries

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:31 pm

Well, I just built the kit and tested it out. It works great and shut off every TV I tried so far. The problem I am having is that sometimes the IR LED's stay on like a flashlight. It is not visible so I viewed it with my cell phone. I took my phone out to see how fast the LED's switch channels and twice out of a bunch of times I noticed it stayed on after scrolling through all the channels. The green led was off and the device pretty much looked off but the cell phone test showed the 4 led's a solid color. The led's did not go off until I pressed the button again and it scanned through all the codes.

I checked all my solders and everything seems to be making proper contact but I want to solve this problem so the device dosnt stay on when it is not in use without me even knowing about it.

Thanks!

adafruit · Post by **adafruit** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:34 pm

hm, what version do you have? v1.1 (black PCB) or v1.0 (green)

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:55 pm

I have version 1.1.

I think I solved the problem, not positive though. I just tried it about 20 times and it didnt stay on. What I did was I reseated the AVR. I straightend out the pins and such and stuck that in. I also re-soldered the battery pack wires on.

Somtimes when I put the device down the green LED flashes as it starts scanning through channels. I was almost positive this was the battery pack because when you insert the batteries it starts scanning. So I thought it was disconnecting/connecting to cause it. I tried wiggling all the wires around and stuff and I just can't get it to randomly start scanning again. The solders are all what seems like solid and complete, im not sure.

Other than that it seems to be good, I will continue to fool around with it and post tomorrow if anything comes up.

Thanks

adafruit · Post by **adafruit** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:49 am

sounds like a good course of action!

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:59 am

Ok, it just happend again... The way I found it this time was because the LED's started to get pretty warm so I took my cell phone out and it was on... What else could I do?

caladan · Post by **caladan** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:20 pm

And is there any bug in v. 1.0 that would cause IRLEDs no to turn off?

adafruit · Post by **adafruit** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:26 pm

it seems to happen when the batteries are getting so low that the device goes into constant reset
but im not 100% sure. still looking into it, its somewhat hard to reproduce

caladan · Post by **caladan** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:30 pm

Hmmm, I see... But now I'm testing power using PSU, so there should be no problems with low voltage. I will try to find the reason too...

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:27 pm

ladyada wrote:it seems to happen when the batteries are getting so low that the device goes into constant reset
but im not 100% sure. still looking into it, its somewhat hard to reproduce

Hmm, I am using fresh batteries. It is very hard to reproduce indeed. I used it ALOT today and it only happend once. Yesterday it happend a few times but stopped after I resoldered and reseated a few pieces. It seems like it happens randomly, I can't make it do it again.

nonstopred · Post by **nonstopred** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:18 am

happened to me tonight. I was holding it and i realized the leds were very hot so i popped out my cell and they were on. I hope this doesnt happen again. Could that fry my thing if i left it on for long?

elliott2 · Post by **elliott2** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:19 pm

This has happened to me a couple of times. I first noticed the LED and transistors getting hot and I found resetting it usually cleares it up. I did look at the output with an oscope and the LEDs on my unit are running a continuous 25 us pulse train with a 50% duty cycle. Pin 8 also has the pulse train superimposed on it (I'm guessing from the heavy current draw on the batteries) and the voltage levels are 2.8 volts, LEDs off and 2.3 volts, LEDs on. When the unit cycles through and enters sleep mode the VCC voltage is at 2.8. Hope this will help.

Cheers,
Tim

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:10 am

I built another one and even get this problem with that one...

I think it is a firmware problem or a microcontroller seat issue. When the pins on the microcontroller get bent it does it alot.

Also for some reason the GREEN LED stays on sometimes when I use it in the cold. Totally random I know but I never got it to happen indoors. It happend 10+ times while outside. I dont know if it is actually the cold doing anything...

adafruit · Post by **adafruit** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:25 am

nonstopred wrote:happened to me tonight. I was holding it and i realized the leds were very hot so i popped out my cell and they were on. I hope this doesnt happen again. Could that fry my thing if i left it on for long?

nah, but it could wear down your batteries

adafruit · Post by **adafruit** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:29 am

elliott2 wrote:This has happened to me a couple of times. I first noticed the LED and transistors getting hot and I found resetting it usually cleares it up. I did look at the output with an oscope and the LEDs on my unit are running a continuous 25 us pulse train with a 50% duty cycle. Pin 8 also has the pulse train superimposed on it (I'm guessing from the heavy current draw on the batteries) and the voltage levels are 2.8 volts, LEDs off and 2.3 volts, LEDs on. When the unit cycles through and enters sleep mode the VCC voltage is at 2.8. Hope this will help.
Tim

2.3V is low but not low enough to cause a brownout. i wonder what else it could be. i really hope its not a bug in the chip

i will add a watchdog timer and if that doesnt help then ill sacrifice some sort of BANNED.

Tanner8 · Post by **Tanner8** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:31 am

Can you check you PM box ladyada. Thanks

adafruit industries

IR LED's Staying On...

IR LED's Staying On...

IRLEDs staying on

Re: IRLEDs staying on